Carotenoids are the natural pigments, which impart a rich orange-red colour in plants and animals. Carotenoids are found in abundance (˜600 types) in nature. These include beta-carotene and alpha-carotene, which can be converted into Vitamin A (retinal) in the body. Other non-vitamin A carotenoids includes lycopene and phytoene. All these are present in crude palm oil. In fact, crude palm oil is one of the richest natural plant sources with carotenes with concentration of 500–700 ppm. Carotenoids have a number of important physiological properties. For example lycopene suppresses the growth of various cancer lines. These include the lung and liver cancer as well as colon tumours.
Ubiquinone (Coenzyme Q10) is a naturally occurring coenzyme found in palm oil. The concentration of ubiquinone in crude palm oil is determined in the range of 10–100 ppm (Hazura et al. 1990). Ubiquinone is found mostly in the inner mitochondrial membrane, especially in the heart, liver, kidney and pancreas. It plays an important role in the mitochondrial electron transport chain and is also a powerful antioxidant and free radical's scavenger, and it is believed to possess membrane-stabilising properties. Since its discovery, ubiquinone has been used to aid in the treatment of many cardiovascular diseases such as congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmias and hypertension.
Phospholipids are essential for cell membrane repair, optimum mental function (it provides vital neurotransmitter precursor) and lipid metabolism. Phospholipids (phosphatides) are indispensable components of cell membranes and are also natural emulsifiers, helping fats dissolve in water. They support a healthy cardiovascular system and have been used as a fat emulsifier in preventing arteriosclerosis, cardiovascular disease, brain function, and proper nerve function and maintain proper electrical energy and nutrients transfer across the cell membrane.
A number of patents have been filed on the recovery of carotenes from palm oil. These include U.S. Pat. No. 5,157,132, GB2160874, U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,092 and EP0349138. The recovery processes employ esterification/transesterification, molecular distillation, adsorbent at some stages. The current process is an advanced process integrating steps of at least one stage vacuum distillation, various physical and chemical treatment and purification to the phytonutrients concentrates. The integrated process yields higher carotenes concentration enriched with ubiquinones in indigenous diacylglycerols; and phospholipids enriched fraction.